NLThis Safer Internet Day the UK Safer Internet Centre team from SWGfL came to Liverpool Football Club to educate students across the city about this year’s theme; ‘’Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online.‘’ The event supported hundreds of school children with their knowledge of online scams; with interactive assemblies and workshops giving them the opportunity to recognise warning signs.
Teachers were also given the opportunity to hear more about support services such as the Professionals Online Safety Helpline, and were also taken through resources and tools such as ProjectEVOLVE and the ProjectEVOLVE EDU training platform. The event also allowed Ken Corish to introduce ProjectEVOLVE Safeguarding, which is being released early this year to support response to online issues.
Online safety experts Gareth Cort and Boris Radanovic introduced this year’s theme, highlighting the importance of Safer Internet Day, and how it has become a staple event across the UK. Discussions also helped students to identify key elements of online scams:
• Unbelievable incentives— Malicious adverts, texts, emails and videos can include exciting incentives, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Emotional triggers—Scams create excitement, shock, or fear to push quick decisions.
• Urgency tactics— Urgent call to actions pressure users to act fast before thinking critically.
• Fake sources— Scam content is usually sent from unknown sources or senders posing as trusted contacts.
• Unexpected communication—We usually expect to receive emails or texts if we have interacted with a platform, but most scams are received unexpectedly.
• Scams can include requests for personal information or requests for money.
• Suspicious links or QR codes— These links can lead to fraudulent websites.
• Errors in content—Typos and inconsistencies often signal a scam.
After exploring these key signs, students put their knowledge to the test with engaging workshops. Through creating examples of online scams, children were allowed to think critically and how these scenarios may be presented to them in real life. The workshops supported understanding and allowed students to talk about the scams they have seen across their favourite platforms.
The event was full of discussion, critical thinking, and engagement, with both students and teachers coming away with an improved understanding. As a thank you for their hard work, children were joined by Mighty Red and former Liverpool football player, Chris Kirkland, who was able to see first-hand why events like these are so important, stressing that the workshops opened his eyes to online risks.
Mighty Red also made sure to come away with UK Safer Internet Centre and SWGfL resources!
As part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, we would like to thank Liverpool FC, and Chris Kirkland for supporting our work and helping us to educate children and teachers from across Liverpool about online scams and vital support services.
If you would like to involve the young people you work with, the UK Safer Internet Centre provides a variety of resources and activities to support engagement with this year’s theme. Explore their website to find out more.
